TAKE ME OUT From London's Donmar Warehouse, a new play by Richard Greenberg, in which a heroic baseball player comes out to the press. Joe Mantello is the director. (Public, 425 Lafayette St. 239-6200.) THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE Just like the 1967 movie it's based on, this musical is supposed to be all madcap Jazz Age fizziness, but the harder the cast sings and dances, the flatter the enterprise falls. The colors seem garish rather than gay, the manic energy feels forced at gun- point, and the only thing you recall about Sutton Foster's Millie after you leave the theatre is her huge white teeth and bouncy black bob. Call it thoroughly boring, shrilly. (Marquis Broadway at 45th St. 307-4100.) THE WORLD OVER Playwrights Horizons kicks off the season with a new play by Keith Bunin, about a young man who believes he is the lost prince of a mythical king- dom. (The Duke, 229 W. 42nd St. 239-6200.) LONG RUNS AIDA Palace, Broadway at 47th St. 307-4747. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Lunt-Fontanne, 205 W. 46th St. 307-4747. BLUE MAN GROUP/TUBES Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette St. 254-4370. CABARET Studio 54, at 254 W. 54th St. 239-6200. CHICAGO Shubert, 225 W. 44th St. 239-6200. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) Century Center, 111 E. 15th St. 239-6200. DE LA GUARDA Daryl Roth, 20 Union Sq. E., at 15th St. 239-6200. FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Douglas Fairbanks, 432 W. 42nd St. 239-6200. 42ND STREET Ford Center, 213 W. 42nd St. 307-4100. THE GOAT; OR. WHO IS SYLVIA Golden, 252 W. 45th St. 239-6200. I LOVE YOU. YOU' RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE Westside, 407 W. 43rd St. 239-6200. THE LION KING New Amsterdam, 214 W. 42nd St. 307-4100. LOVE, JANIS Village Theatre, 158 Bleecker St. 307-4100. MAMMA MIA! Winter Garden, Broadway at 50th St. 563-5544. MET AMORPHOSES Circle in the Square, 50th Sr. west of Broadway. 239-6200. LES MISÉRABLES Imperial, 249 W. 45th St. 239-6200. OKLAHOMA! Gershwin, 51st St. west of Broadway. 307-4100. PERFECT CRIME Duffy, 1553 Broadway, at 46th St. 695-3401. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Majestic, 245 W. 44th St. 239-6200. THE PRODUCERS St. James, 246 W. 44th Sr. 239-6200. PROOF Walter Kerr, 219 W 48th St. 239-6200. PUPPETRY OF THE PENIS John Houseman, 450 W. 42nd St. 239-6200. RENT Nederlander, 208 W. 41st St. 921-8000. STOMP Orpheum, 126 Second Ave., at 8th St. 477-2477. TONY N' TINA'S WEDDING St. Luke's Church, 308 W. 46th St. 239-6200. UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St. 239-6200. URINETOWN Henry Miller, 124 W 43rd St. 239-6200. THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES Westside, 407 W 43rd Sr. 239-6200. DANCE MOM IX The company opens the Joyce's fall season with two full-length programs presented during a three- week run. This week, they perform both works: "Opus Cactus," their celebration of the Sonoran Desert, and "MOMIX in Orbit," a medley of rep- ertoryexcerpts. (175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St. 242- 0800. Oct. 1-4 at 8, Oct. 5 at 2 and 8, and Oct. 6 at 2 and 7:30. Through Oct. 13.) "W ALKING OUT THE DARK" In Dance Theatre Workshop's former performance space, the ceilings were so low that tall dancers worried about bonking their heads when they jumped. Now, in the organization's bright new building-with its solid front of windows inviting passersby to gawk at rehearsals on the third floor, administrative affairs on the second, and theatre- goers boozing it up at ground level-the theatre could house a whole circus, including high-flying trapeze. But for its first, mesmerizing offering, by Ronald K. Brown, the four dancers stick close to the ground. "Walking Out the Dark" begins with the punctuated rhythm, fierce precision, and de- clamatory heat of a fraught conversation between intimates. One dancer's eyes stay glued to an- other's as he flutters his hips back and forth like a delicate question or collapses onto his back, arms overhead in a guileless exclamation of surrender. The dance ends on a high note, with a New Guinea celebration number-the kind of dancing that Brown says "people do when they're travelling to- gether toward bliss." (219 W 19th St. 924-0077. Oct. 2-5 at 7 and Oct. 6 at 2. Through Oct. 20.) liTHE JUNEBUG SYMPHONY II The show's creator and principal performer, James Thiérrée, grew up in a tent, he says, after his parents ran away to the circus (they brought him along). He began his circus duties when he was still a wee tot as a prop in their hands. As if that weren't enough, Charlie Chaplin was his grandfather. "I should have been an accountant," he says. "Now, that would have been exotic." Instead, he did the normal thing and learned to fly on the trapeze, clown with delicate ease or sudden rambunctious- ness, and play haunting violin while skimming the ground on roller skates-all of which comes into play in this feather-light symphony of things (and four people) going bump in the night. "The show is very simple," Thiérrée says. "It is made of imag- ination and good will." (New Victory Theatre, 209 W. 42nd St. 239-6200. Ocr. 3-4 at 7, Oct. 5 at 1 and 7, and OCt. 6 at 3. Through Oct. 13.) GINA GIBNEY DANCE The choreographer collaborates with the composer Kitty Brazelton on "Time Remaining," an evening- length work inspired by an image of temple ruins covered in vines. (Danspace Project, Second Ave. at 10th St. 674-8194. Oct. 5-6 and Oct. 8 at 8:30.) "RIP IT OPEN" Maura Donohue thinks her last couple of produc- tions, delicate Butoh-style works she often per- formed in the nude, were trying tOO hard to be good. "They had this one-world, uplift thing going on," she says. "I was performing what I wanted to feel, not what I did feel." So, taking courage from such liberating embarrassments as "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and Courtney Love, she is offering an evening of su?pect taste and clashing attitudes. "Rip It Open" skips and hops from, say, a riot school- grrrl bouncing up and down on a bungee cord while begging Jesus to sock it to her to a tough-minded feminist word-slammer suddenly overcome by Hallmark sweetness. Donohue says, "It was time to get over my approval issues." (P.S. 122, 150 First Ave., at 9th St. 477-5288. Oct. 3-6 at 8:30.) SACHIYO ITO AND COMPANY To mark the thirtieth anniversary of her first ap- pearance in the United States, the Kabuki dancer and her company perform "Kyo Ningyo," a Ka- o ouery ""-:. - If you like programs like THE ASSASSinATiOn OF (and you will) you'll love our new weekly series , . ' : . :. -'(-.;-..;y' . -. :.... "::.1';:' '-' "". . ^ ." .VI October 9 Gettysburg: Pickett's Charge October 16 The Death of the U.S.S. Maine October 23 Inside Hitler's Bunker October 30 Forensics in the White House November 6 Custer's Last Stand November 13 The Alamo, : ";. . :-<:'::.: . . ....;-:'":..' ..: ...:-: - : .":._ ')" ':-.. ' .,:- ...... ):-.." -.)., T.'"';:. . , .... . .... .. . .-::. ,". . ; .:-., .: ... ')"'.) . - :. . .:. .{. ,-..:..... )".", "', FORENSIC SCIENCE PUTS HISTORY TO THE TEST. EVERY WEDNESDAY, 9PM EIP .õ Co o G THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 7, 2002 17